Gummerson left big legacy at Conant

Optimism and enthusiasm were trademarks of the long and distinguished career of Ron Gummerson as Conant's boys track and field coach.

They also exemplified his life even when his two-year battle with cancer took a recent turn for the worse and spread to his liver. He was going to battle with dignity and grace all the way to the finish line.

“He fought like crazy,” said Gummerson's son Kevin, who teaches and coaches cross country and track at Minooka. “The key thing was he was always positive.

“When he found out he had to do a round of chemo(therapy) he looked and said, ‘Chemo doesn't seem too bad.'”

Unfortunately, it weakened his immune system and resulted in a blood infection. Just before midnight Wednesday, Gummerson passed away at age 66.

“He was an incredible man,” said Kevin, who has helped continue the legacy as one of the first families of high school track and field in Illinois.

As long-time assistant coach and friend John Ayres put it Thursday afternoon, “it was never, ever about Ron Gummerson, it was always about the kids” during a career of three decades as a business teacher and coach.

Gummerson was about promoting not only his kids but all kids involved in track and field. It was an extension of the approach of his father Roy, a coaching legend who was named “Mr. Track and Field” at the 100th anniversary celebration of the state meet in 1994.

“His greatness came to light with people who you would never even know it,” said Ayres, who was also Conant's head football coach. “Ron never gave up on anybody and he always took every kid. He would tell a kid, ‘Can you chew gum and smile at the same time?'

“I learned a lot from him as a coach — the way he treated kids and they way everybody was special. Very few coaches will embrace that.”

Gummerson did in the Cougar Track Classic that now bears his name and has run for nearly 40 years.

Imitation was the sincerest form of flattery for an event that hosted some of the state's top teams and competitors. The three-class format provided multiple opportunities to compete and succeed — along with picking up a CTC T-shirt that was often worn by qualifiers at the state meet.

“He was a wonderful person in the hallways and just a great guy,” said Conant girls coach Bob Borczak, who ran for Gummerson in the 1970s. “Everybody who knew him appreciated him for that. He was always upbeat and positive.

“When they told him a couple of weeks ago he had liver cancer he was upbeat and saying ‘We can beat this.'”

Not unlike the way Gummerson would implore Borczak and so many others as they came into the stretch on the final leg of a mile relay.

“He was a great man who helped me not only as an athlete but as a teacher and a friend,” said former Conant distance runner Eric Suender, who followed Gummerson's footsteps by not only running at Bradley University but also joining the same fraternity.

Ayres was a year ahead of Gummerson in high school at Proviso West. They knew each other but didn't run in the same circles since Ayres played football, basketball and baseball and Gummerson ran track and cross country.

When Ayres came to Conant in 1975 he didn't know Gummerson was the head track coach. But he quickly became an assistant and became part of a 25-year joyride that also included assistants such as Bill Dahl, another Proviso West product, current head coach John Powers, Brett Anderson and Ken Johnson.

“We had just an absolutely wonderful time,” Ayres said. “I told him early in my career I'd be a track coach long after I was a football coach.

“I can't imagine anyone who didn't like him. He was such a gracious competitor.”

And the member of the Illinois Track and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame was a mentor to coaches such as Borczak, Suender, Powers, Matt Campbell at Jacobs and Bob Fecarotta at Marengo.

“At a young age I saw that impact he had on people and I still see it to this day,” Kevin Gummerson said. “He was a great, great role model for athletes and people in general.

“It was amazing the amount of people he reached. We always knew it but we didn't really start to see it until now.”

And what you saw is what you got with Gummerson.

“The impact he had on so many, many kids who have all grown up to be such fine young men,” said Ayres' wife Lana, who was Conant's longtime athletic secretary.

“We've had a lot of great coaches at Conant High School,” John Ayres said, “but there were none better than Ron Gummerson.”

mmaciaszek@dailyherald.com

Visitation for Ron Gummerson will be from 3 p.m.-8 p.m. Sunday at Ahlgrim and Sons Funeral Home, 330 W. Golf Road, Schaumburg. The funeral will be at 10 a.m. Monday at Church of the Holy Spirit Catholic Church at 1451 W. Bode Road, Schaumburg.